TGIT Recaps – What to Expect From Your Fave Shonda Shows

Warning: Major spoilers for the latest episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder ahead!

Last Thursday was the ABC winter finales of all of our favorite Shonda Rhimes shows – otherwise known as TGIT. Thank goodness it was Thursday, indeed. The winter finale event kicked off with Grey’s Anatomy at 8PM, Scandal at 9PM, and How to Get Away with Murder at 10PM. Each show promised to deliver on the drama and reveals, leaving us waiting with baited breath for new episodes to return January 26th. And we weren’t disappointed. From characters getting shot to blood-soaked helicopters, last night was a real rollercoaster – and exactly what you would expect from a Shondaland production.

If you missed out on all the mayhem, have no fear. Not only are we recapping the shows themselves, but we’re also making predictions for what kind of drama to expect when this long winter hiatus is finally over. We’ve even handpicked a few books to dive into on this Turkey Day while you’re waiting for TGIT to return in January. So here’s a breakdown of your favorite shows – and how to survive the looming 2 month break:

Last week marked the 300th episode of Grey’s, and it reminded us of all the people we’ve lost and the storylines we’ve missed. It also set us up perfectly for last night’s episode, with Meredith winning the Harper Avery Award, in a sort of calm-before-the-storm moment before everything went totally nuts. Last night the hospital was once again put into turmoil when a hacker destroyed the hospital’s computer system, demanding 20 millions dollars in ransom. The very-high tech Grey Sloan Memorial was in complete chaos as the doctors were forced to return to more old school methods or lose all their patients in the process. There were a lot of crazy twists, including a woman giving birth in a hallway, Jackson and Maggie trapped on a helicopter while a patient’s blood spurts all over them, and Jo’s ex-husband showing up out of the blue – most likely preventing her from stopping Karev make a fatal mistake with a young patient.

We have no idea how all of this drama will shake out in January, but we have some guesses. The return of Paul, Jo’s ex, can only mean bad things for her and Karev, not to mention what will happen if he loses his patient. But overall, while this finale had crazy high tension, it didn’t include one of Grey’s signature moves: dramatically killing off a main character. This does not bode well for the gang as they move into the second half of Season 14. If we had to guess, we’d say that someone’s probably not going to make it to the season’s end.

When you’re missing Meredith and the gang over the winter hiatus, try reading Kelly Parson’sUnder the Knife. The medical thriller has all the drama of an episode of Grey’s, mixed with murder and revenge. When Dr. Rita Wu loses a patient during surgery, she never thinks that it will destroy her career and threaten her sanity. But that’s exactly what happens when the grieving husband – billionaire Morgan Finney – devotes himself to ruining her life, hell-bent on revenge. Soon Rita is fighting just to survive, trying to stop Morgan before she loses everything. The hardcover came out last year, but the paperback will be available January 2nd, which gives you plenty of time to read before the show comes back later that month.

The final season of Scandal has been majorly high-stakes the last few weeks, but last night felt like a much quieter (and therefore almost more disturbing) episode. Olivia is on the edge at this point, running the B613 and struggling hard with the individual immoral decisions that she knows are sometimes the right choice for the greater good. Episode 7, “Something Borrowed,” is all about Quinn and whether or not Olivia can give the orders to have her friend killed. It was also all about Olivia’s father, and the two of them end the episode in a sort of deadlock, with Eli finally going down to the basement to possibly murder Quinn (and her unborn child) and Olivia left to ponder who she has become.

With Olivia’s white hat status in serious jeopardy, we’re not totally sure where the show is headed in its final season. But we know where we want it to go, with Olivia returning to her solidly white hat ways and maybe even running off to Vermont with a certain former president. At the very least, we’re hoping that Quinn somehow made it through those mysterious two shots that were fired and that Olivia doesn’t have a black mark on her soul that might be impossible to wipe away.

If you’re drawn to the scandalous politics surrounding Olivia Pope, then you’ll love Katy Tur’s recollection of her time on the Trump campaign, Unbelievable. Her political memoir is a close look into Tur’s experience reporting on Trump’s campaign. For over a year and a half, Tur traveled to 40 states, lived out of suitcases, dealt with severe verbal abuse, but still diligently reported on all the false stories and lies she encountered through Trump’s camp. Zany, darkly funny, and more than a little upsetting, Unbelievable is the kind of true story that is so much crazier than fiction.

O.M.G. ABC was certainly saving the most insane finale for last, and How to Get Away with Murder more than delivered on the drama. While there were minor plot points for most of the characters, the biggest news of the night was twofold: Simon accidentally shot himself in the head and things are not looking good, and Laurel had her baby in an elevator and things are also not looking good. Not to mention the fact that Annalise pulled the stillborn child through the elevator grate and performed CPR for ages, saving it in the very final, harrowing moments. It was all so intense that our hearts are still trying to pound through our chests.

Where does this leave us moving forward? At this point, both Simon and Laurel might be dead. And if we have to choose which one makes it, we’re going with TeamLaurel. As for the rest of the season, we’re expecting the usual twisty plots and high-stakes, though we’d also love to see a potential Annalise and Dr. Roa hookup.

Shonda Rhimes might be recreating the legal drama for television, but James Patterson is the reigning king of it in literature. His latest novel, The People vs. Alex Cross, continues his popular Alex Cross series, this time placing Cross in the legal hot seat. When the main character gets charged for the murder of Gary Soneji, it turns into the trial of the century, painting Cross as a corrupt cop who thinks he’s above the law. But even as he’s fighting to prove his innocence, he can’t completely step away from the job, and he soon finds himself trying to solve a murder – despite being prosecuted for another one.

Which TGIT shows did you catch last night? Still reeling over those last few minutes of HTGAWM? Let us know in the comments!

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Rachel Carter grew up surrounded by trees and snow and mountains. She graduated from the University of Vermont and Columbia University, where she received her MFA in nonfiction writing. She is the author of the So Close to You series with Harperteen. These days you can find her working on her next novel in the woods of Vermont.

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